Thursday, 7 April 2011

Question time quiz

David Dimbleby is joined in Oxford {which is politically a three way. Labour hold east very strong - lib/con equal votes amongst the rest.}

by Jeremy Hunt MP,{minister for opera/tv & football. Ex Oxford man himself. Man who decides if evil Murdoch will gain control of the world or something..}Caroline Flint MP,{Former minister of various non-posts culminating in minister for Europe when she confessed to having no idea what was in the Lisbon treaty she urged everyone to support. Interrupts a lot..See how long before Dimby slaps her down.}Jo Swinson MP, {Scots lib-dem. Noted campaigner against chocolate eggs, which is at least topical.}Professor Lord Winston {Medical media figure and Labour peer. Big on the arts too. Is that a hint?} and Simon Callow{insufferable luvvie, but I really like him. Actor/writer/ raconteur/ prominent homosexual in the best Stephen Fry tradition. Hopefully entertaining.}

BQ thinks1. Portugal - Does this prove the debt has to be tackled? {no}2. Cuts to the arts have decimated Britain and returned us to some pre Ipad dial-up hell zone.}3. NHS U-Turn, that is, but isn't. {leave it Dave! it ain't worf it.}4. Tuition fees at 9k by 99% of uni. Did anyone on the panel really expect that would not happen? {Jo Swinson excepted.}5. Could be anything..will go for IRA bombing shows ireland now more united than ever.

27 comments:

Miss S-J
said...

- Portugal. Is Spain next- News of the World Arrests. Is Jeremy Hunt aware?- Libya. What to do about the stalemate?- Clegg's tears. Were they for the old days when no-one listened to a word he said so it didn't matter what rubbish he came out with?Interns. After a year in office why haven't Liberal Democrats learned that they can't just spout garbage without someone checking?

i'm putting my head on the block, and saying no Libya question this week. Not with confidence though..

1. With its welfare to work programme, volunteering for the Big Society and opening up internships, has this Government done more for equality than any other by ensuring that everyone, regardless of class, age, or sex has the opportunity to work for free?

Q1. - NHS reforms. Should Lansley resign? {bit harsh}Winston not very sure its a good idea. He wonders why Cameron is doing it. So do I. Its political death. Hunt is backing party line. Bet Flint goes mental in a minute. She's getting shouty already! And looks a bit surprised when told its in her own manifesto. But she never reads her own briefs, as we know. I fully agree with the audience man who says 'its a massive project and Cameron probably doesn't have the political capital to invest in it.' Swinson 'we're listening'.Well informed audience. Is there a medical college in Oxford? Callow is right. DC built 'new Tory' on leaving the health service alone. Leave it alone Dave. Its like the BBC. All you can do is restrict its growth unless you have a majority of Blair proportions.

Q2.Clegg cries. Turns into arts cut question. Callow says that most arts are run on a shoestring. I think he means alternative and gallery art. The trouble is Simon, the budget is spread too thin. Do we need feminist-scatological sculpture or whatever it is. Don't fund so much.Hunt does ok defending his cuts.Plenty of arts grads there. Flint believes cuts are not a necessity. And talks utter crap to support that view, even contradicting herself. Flint gets big applause though. See Dave? You're up against ideology not rationalism. Drop the NHS reforms.fix the schools instead.

Q3 - Portugal vindicates UK measures. Again audience disagrees.Flint uses that to explain why there is no need to cut. Hunt does ok again. Winston wisely points out we have devalued our economy. He's wrong about Labour growth-Tory retraction. Labour growth cost £50bn and was purely for an election.Swinson finally sounds convincing on something.

Q4 . AV question.Should have guessed that with Winston on the panel.He's the face of 'No' I believe. Hardly an Eddie Izzard.Some of you did. Still, question sets the coalition against themselves. Callow is for AV. Weird comment about twix and mars? Doesn't make sense to me.

Q5 - Social mobility interns/clegg {blames the Tories for some reason?}Becomes a class question, which gets massive applause{odd in the most privileged part of the country}Rambles into a tuition fees question. £9,000 fees comes up.

Q6. Camo concedes Britain responsible for everything.Unprecedented 6th question!Flint talks balls. Someone punch her out. Callow puts it better. Except we get the blame. Sorry Pakistan! At least Winston reminds everyone that our record was remarkably good. It was too! Possibly only USA had a better one, and even theirs was bloody and self serving.

Timbo 614 - 2.5 {what's that about stamps. They all come self adhesive now anyway.}

Appointmentotheboard - 4+ .5 for the definate no LIBYA. -4.5 {a pony on the national?}

Nick Drew: I'm shocked and stunned. -5 {even though one of them was the same question}

Hatfield Girl - Just 2.5.You must post on here to remind us of Italy bunga, bunga. For those that don't know HG has covered the ins & outs of Italian politics long before the MSM. Any juicy pieces pop links into the comments please.

Botogol -4 {no royal wedding}Its a high scoring night.

Philipa - 3.5 good hits -3.5You should have joined in sooner! Never mind, almost time for a new season.{can i hear the sound of an axe being sharpened? How's the job hunting going?}

CU -{good holiday? Did you see Dave on his way out?}4 mega hits.

Steven_L - 3 {what is this women story? I must have missed it.}

ND: I dispute that oft repeated 'Portugal is our oldest ally.'treaty of Windsor 1386, sure. But we fought them during the Armada and during war of Spanish succession and another few times I'm sure. Just because someone forgot to tear up the treaty each time we went to war doesn't mean they are our allies. Where were they in WW2? Lisbon Might have been quite handy as a U-boat hunting bomber base.

Still

Winner is Nick Drew with an amazing 5 points, who must decide whether to bailout our sometime allies.

29,653,638 people order their chocolate of choice. A Mars bar may be your first choice… but not others. However if after the trip down the shop nobody wanted a Mars bar as much as you did, then a another attempt is made at purchasing what might be everyone’s second choice, (you might have chosen a Twix). However once again nobody wanted a Twix, so this process continues until a chocolate bar is wanted by 50% of the people who now have very low blood sugar levels… upon which you get a finger of fudge.

Seems i was a bit hasty to do down our comrades in arms the Portuguese.

Treaty was activated again during the Second World War ...in 1943, when it was fully reactivated... Britain, after 3 months' negotiations, was accorded aerodrome and nautcial facilities in the Portuguese Azores to help combat the U-boat threat.

So, they did help. A bit late as even Brazil had joined the Allies a year earlier and U-boats were pretty much defeated by August 1943, but there were UK forces stationed in the Azores.

So go ahead with the Unslicker Treaty and bail 'em out.After all, we bailed out Ireland and they didn't help us in WW2, despite their own survival depending on those same US convoys.